The Effect of Eccentricity on the Accretion Rate onto Newly Formed Planets in Protoplanetary Discs

Abstract

When planets form and evolve in protoplanetary discs, they accrete material from the disc. This material first flows onto a circumplanetary disc, before falling onto the planet. We investigate the significance of the protoplanet’s orbital eccentricity on the variability of the accretion rates, and how this affects the planet’s evolution.
Using the SPH code Phantom (Price et al., 2018), we simulate the evolution of a young planet in a protoplanetary disc. We vary the initial eccentricity of the planet and the initial disc mass. We then measure the accretion rate onto the circumplanetary disc and the planet itself.
We find that these accretion rates can vary by an order of magnitude throughout a single orbit of the planet. The average accretion rate for different initial conditions also show an order of magnitude difference.
Accretion rates which vary to this extent could influence the formation of satellites around the planet.